At least 50 of the 303 children abducted this week from a Catholic school in Nigeria have escaped and been reunited with their families, a church group has said, as Pope Leo pleaded for their immediate release.
In the Pope’s “heartfelt appeal” he spoke of his “great pain” following one of the worst mass kidnappings ever recorded in the West African country.
On Friday, gunmen kidnapped students and teachers from St Mary’s school in the northwest of Nigeria – the latest in a spate of school attacks this week that has forced the government to close 47 colleges.
The 50 schoolchildren, aged between 10 and 18, escaped individually between Friday and Saturday, according to the Most Reverend Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, the proprietor of the school.
A total of 253 schoolchildren and 12 teachers are still being held, he said in a statement. It was not immediately clear where the children who escaped were being held or how they managed to return.
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Speaking at the end of a mass in St Peter’s Square, Pope Leo said he was “deeply saddened” to learn of the kidnappings in Nigeria and Cameroon this week.
He said: “I feel great pain, especially for the many young men and women who have been abducted and for their anguished families.”
“I make a heartfelt appeal for the immediate release of the hostages and urge the competent authorities to take appropriate and timely decisions to ensure their release,” he added.
“Let us pray for these brothers and sisters of ours and that churches and schools may always and everywhere remain places of safety and hope.”
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No group has yet claimed responsibility for the abductions at St Mary’s and authorities have said tactical squads have been deployed alongside local hunters to rescue the children.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said on Saturday it had raised its estimate of those taken from the school to 315 from an earlier estimate of 227, following a verification exercise that found a further 88 students had been captured after they tried to escape.
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Nigeria’s security situation has faced increased scrutiny since US President Donald Trump threatened military action in the West African country over the treatment of Christians.
Nigeria’s government says Mr Trump’s claims that Christians face persecution there are a misrepresentation of the country’s complex security challenges.
Niger state has now closed all schools to forestall other kidnappings. The decision was made to protect lives and property, Niger governor Umar Bago told reporters on Saturday.
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School kidnappings have come to define insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation, and armed gangs often see schools as “strategic” targets to attract more attention.
Unicef said last year that only 37% of schools across 10 of the conflict-hit states have early warning systems to detect threats.
